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Friday, April 13, 2007

As happy as the Devils were about their victory tonight, there was a feeling in their postgame locker room that they got away with one. Checking center John Madden sat at his locker, staring down at the floor wondering what went wrong for his line against the Lightning’s top line of Vaclav Prospal, Vincent Lecavalier and St. Louis. Lecavalier scored two goals and St. Louis scored one.

Lecavalier was left wide open at the top of the right circle for a one-timer on his second goal.

“We’ll have to look at some videotape and talk about it among ourselves,” Madden said.

Madden and linemate Jay Pandolfo did play huge roles on the Devils’ penalty kill, which allowed a 5-on-3 goal to St. Louis in the first period, but escaped another two-man advantage and killed off a Zach Parise slashing penalty with the team clinging to a 4-3 lead late in the third period.

Still, the Devils know they might not be able to win three more games playing the way they did tonight. Johan Holmqvist gave them a big hand. Three of the goals he allowed were questionable and a fourth resulted from his poor judgment in handling the puck.

Although Lightning coach John Totorella was supportive of Holmqvist after tonight’s game, you have to wonder how long he’ll stick with him in Game 2 if he plays the same way.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.